


The Portrait

by MadelineL



Category: Voltron: Defender of the Universe because 'Lion Force' is literally nothing in existence
Genre: Conflict Resolution, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Honest Conversations, Kissing, Sexy lotor, low-key angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-14 14:21:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18949909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadelineL/pseuds/MadelineL
Summary: Allura receives a gifted painting of Lotor. What plot is he up to this time?





	The Portrait

Allura cut the string holding the paper down. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She had no idea what this could be or who had left it. It was quite large, and in an obvious frame. Who would send her a painting?

Pulling at the covering, her blood ran cold when the ripped paper fluttered down to the floor. She nearly shrieked before her senses caught up to her. A lifelike visage was suddenly watching her, still and unmoving. It was none other than the Crown Prince of Doom.

“Who sent me this stupid thing?!” she yelled at her room.

Silence was her answer.

The princess continued to look at the artwork. It was a very well done piece. It seemed strange that the Drules of all people supported the arts enough to have talent like this in their realm. She looked away for a moment to try and clear her mind, and then back. It was a bizarre experience to be able to look at him without fearing for her safety. She’d always only ever been this close to him in the heat of battle or trying to run away. Usually both.

Allura continued to scrutinize the painting.

She hadn’t realized at first because of her annoyance, but the Lotor in it was quite… not how he usually appeared. It showed the prince laid back, onto what she could only assume was a bed. His figure took up most of the space on the canvas, so there really wasn’t much of the background visible. He was pulling open the front of his clothing, showing off his torso in a half-open V shape down to his navel. Lips slightly smirking up at the viewer, and a little parted, allowing the tiny points of his canines to catch the light. His eyes were half closed, a smoldering look to them.

It was the first time she had ever seen him not looking arrogant… when not angry and yelling. Her cheeks started to overheat as she realized the intensely suggestive nature of the painting. This had to be some rude gift from him. She narrowed her eyes at it, before turning on her heels to her desk.

Allura rummaged in a drawer for a few seconds before finding her tape. Coming back to the painting, she glared at it, and picked up the pieces of paper scattered on the floor. Putting them back together, she haphazardly and angrily covered the painting back up. Leave it to that jerk to send her something borderline obscene!

 

–

 

Two days later, after the princess had been willfully ignoring the large canvas behind the paper, she started considering just burning it.

_It would serve him right, sending me something so ridiculous without…_

Saying permission didn’t seem like the right word for that. She had spurned him countless times already, why would he send her this at all? The thought it could be some sort of portal or listening device crossed her mind. Everything he did was some ridiculous scheme.

Allura ignored it for another three days. She snapped when Nanny made a comment at her over it, and she ending up telling her caretaker to stop nagging her. The woman was shocked into silence, and the princess used that opportunity to shuffle her out of her rooms.

Once alone, she ripped the paper off again, angry and aware how the painting even being there was making her irritable. She grabbed a pair of scissors and stalked back to it. Frowning, she wondered again why it had even shown up.

 

“ _Why is someone sending us something like this in the middle of a war?” Hunk said aloud, but nobody bothered to answer him._

_Keith was frowning, staring at the paper wrapped frame held steady with planks of wood and metal. Everyone else seemed more excitable about it, but he was intensely bothered by it. Something was off._

“ _It’s a painting, right?” Lance asked._

“ _It is indeed,” Coran answered. “We’ve scanned it for any possibly espionage devices but it’s just wood, canvas, and paint. Perhaps a suitor is trying to woo Princess Allura by sending her a rare and one of a kind token. The note attached certainly indicated as much.”_

_That thought was all Keith needed. He took Allura by the arm and led her to the other room._

“ _Princess, this is probably a plot by Lotor. As long as it’s in play, they won’t attack Arus. It would probably be a good idea to play along, plead ignorance... give ourselves and the planet a long overdue break from the attacks, wouldn’t you agree?”_

“ _That... is actually a wonderful idea, Keith. I suppose I’ll have to take it to my personal rooms to keep anyone from doing anything to it.”_

_He smiled at her. “Yes, but please be very careful. With that witch around we never know what will happen. Maybe the frame is full of snakes.”_

_Allura laughed as they walked back to join everyone else._

 

Carefully this time, she took the paper off the entire frame. Folding it up to the side in case she changed her mind, she sighed and looked back at the picture.

The prince was life sized. Reaching out, her fingers traced the curves of his hair spilled around on the sheets, a halo of white around his head. Allura idly wondered if in reality it was soft, or as harsh as the drule it came from. Her hand stilled, and she caught her eye wandering down. The opening in his shirt showed off his well toned muscles, and the skin tone she was not used to seeing often, mixed with the shape to draw her eye, made her unconsciously swallow.

She forced herself to look back up, and not continue downward to where his legs were spread and that black bit of fabric was raised up over his hips, with those tight pants of his beyond. She would not give him the pleasure of knowing he had made her look at his…

Allura almost growled in anger. Suddenly that smug, sensual look on his face made sense. Even not being there, he _knew_ she would see everything in the painting. Such a jerk! But looking him in the eye now, she felt a rush of guilt and lewdness seeping into her mind.

She decided then and there, if he was going to demand she ogle him, then ogle him she would! Her fingers ran down the front of his chest, the paint giving the vague impressions of shape from the brushstrokes. When her hand reached the bottom where the shirt was still closed, she glanced down before moving. His pants were very tight. Too tight. Her face felt positively on fire with embarrassment as she comprehended what exactly the prince had sent her.

Allura spun around, unable to continue looking at him. She covered her face with her hands, her mortification extreme. It took her several minutes to calm down. When she did, she glanced back over her shoulder. Everything was the still same, and that fact made her feel braver.

She started to consider how he looked. How he _really_ looked. The prince was bigger than her, but not awkwardly so. He liked her a great deal, it couldn’t possibly be weird to him for her to be human. She couldn’t understand why he claimed to have feelings for her at all. Looking at him now, she realized how different to his father he looked. If she hadn’t been told Lotor was Zarkon’s son by his own mouth, she would never have believed it.

Reaching out, she put her hands over his ears to hide them. If she squinted, ignoring the very obvious drule eyes and pretended his skin was shaded due to lighting, his appearance was that of a fine specimen of a human man. Relaxing her eyes, she looked at him for what felt like the very first time. His handsome features were not twisting into a scowl in anger, but rather frozen in a gaze that looked at her with a burning desire. She bit her lip. He clearly had this made for her, and her alone.

Allura turned on her heel and raced into her closet. She nearly yanked on the door to make it close faster so she could be completely alone, the eyes on that painting unable to follow her. Lotor had sent her something that was clearly meant to make her have thoughts about him, half dressed and on her bed… looking up at her with that lusty expression, asking her to touch him…

She smacked her cheeks, hard. It was obvious what his plan was, and it was absolutely working. She was both angry at him for such a direct flirtation… yet starting to get curious. He’d never looked at her like that in person. Allura leaned her forehead against the back of the door, eyes closed, and tried to calm her breathing. His attitude towards her had always been lusty... but it had grown from wanting her as some pleasure slave, to actually respecting her as another royal who could hold her own against him. He’d tried kidnapping her, but even that had devolved into begging her to marry him. Several times he could have just whisked her away to Doom, but instead he had spent time and effort trying to convince her to agree of her own free will to be with him. This new tactic showed he was willing to change and try different things, all in an effort to please her sensibilities… even if it was heavily impassioned.

Her senses calm, and upset replaced by annoyance, Allura dressed for slumber. She refused to do such a thing anywhere near where his eyes, even painted, could see her like that. When she went to sleep, she made sure her back was to the painting. If he could somehow see her, it would be an obvious dismissal.

 

–

 

The next evening, the princess was unable to keep ignoring the picture like it wasn’t a huge eyesore in her bedroom. Chewing on her lip, she found herself standing in front of it again, frowning and glaring up at his stupid, handsome face.

There was a slight rush of excitement in her, like she had snuck a man into her room with nobody knowing. The scandalous nature of that thought made the blood start pounding in her ears. She started thinking about things she had tried not to for a long time; a man wanting her for who she was, not her position, crown, or Voltron. She took a deep breath to try and calm down.

Leaning forward, Allura scrutinized the painting again. His open lips, parted and almost beckoning, seemed to want to whisper something in her ear. She couldn’t stop staring. Leaning forward slowly, on her tiptoes, she idly wondered what it was like to be kissed. Her mind absolutely did not keep up with her body, and she froze when her lips touched his on the portrait.

Half a beat passed with her pressed to the painting before it started to feel warm. Allura went to move back from it, but suddenly, arms were around her and she couldn’t move. She tried to scream, but her mouth was covered and no sound came out.

Then, she was falling backwards. When the princess hit floor with a thud, she shrieked. After that was nothing but silence and stillness, and a great weight holding her down. Carefully, she opened her eyes.

Laying on top of her was Prince Lotor. The items that had been all around him in the painting, his helmet, belt, and buckle, were now strewn across her floor. His head was resting right above her breast, lips slightly parted, and his arms relaxed from where they had fallen. Allura tried to stay calm. He was gently breathing against her, but was otherwise not moving. He seemed… asleep?

When she started to try and move, she heard him make a throaty laugh, and lifted his head to look at her, wide awake. She swallowed her fear and stared him down. It was always best to give the ferocious prince a direct approach in all interactions.

His hands moved quicker than she could see and he grabbed her wrists, pulling them over her head. All attempts at bravery were starting to break apart as he smirked down at her.

“You set me free.”

She blinked repeatedly at him. “I... what?”

“Give me another kiss, Allura… my sweet,” he said moving his face closer to hers.

“If you touch me, I will scream louder than you have ever heard. Your ears are bigger than a humans, I bet you hear better, too.”

Lotor stopped moving and frowned. “But you released me. You kissed me.”

She glared at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You _kissed_ me!”

“I did no such thing!”

The prince laughed softly, and closed the gap between them. He didn’t kiss her on the lips, instead going to her cheek, giving her several feather-light pecks before moving down to her ear and whispering. “The only way you could have released me from the painting was with a kiss to the lips, my sweet.”

Allura wanted to cry. What had she done?

He let that sit in the area for a moment as she tried to process the situation and continued to protest.

“I… I did not kiss you.”

“Oh, but I know you did. Unless Haggar is hiding behind your little pink bed, the only way for me to be released was with a kiss from the woman I love. On the lips.” He leaned back and smirked at her as he moved one of his hands down to hold her chin. “Now, Allura, my sweet, are you going to admit your tender lips touched mine, all on your own?”

His arrogant grin was making her angry, but she could barely breath with his weight on her, let alone scream. She looked away as her eyes prickled.

“ _...a kiss from the woman I love...”_

Allura idly wondered why everything with him had to be so intense. Was it because he was a Drule? Her lips touching his _had_ to have been the way to undo whatever magic had him in there… she'd already touched the painting with her hands and nothing had happened, so he couldn’t be lying about the kissing part.

She could feel her eyes now filling with tears. Lotor tried to move her chin to look at him, and she let herself be led.

“Allura, why do you deny what you clearly want?”

She frowned at him, pursing her lips, and she saw him glance down. She briefly closed her eyes to take a deep breath to distract him from trying to kiss her.

“Fine. I admit it, but it was only a light peck. I was just curious because I’ve never… well I guess _now_ I’ve had my first kiss, no thanks to you.” She watched as his eyes started to go wide, and she realized she should stop antagonizing him when she couldn’t even move.

“And yes, whatever you set out to do worked. You looked… _pleasing_ in there, not yelling and chasing me, or say, holding me hostage.”

The princess twisted her wrists for emphasis. He instantly let them go, and sat back on his heels, his expression pensive. Her legs were trapped beneath him. She slowly lowered her arms and rubbed at her wrists before leaning up on her elbows.

“What would have happened if the painting had been destroyed?”

He frowned. “I would have died.”

She swallowed hard. She had been considering killing him without even know it!

“You… why were you in there then? That’s a huge risk on the hope that I would _maybe_ … uh, ‘free you.’”

His lips curled into an arrogant grin. “Haggar had a prophetic vision you would kiss me in there. I was confident you would release me.”

“What if she was lying?” she asked in a small voice. “She could have done that to trap you in there forever….”

Lotor tilted his head to look at her. “Is that worry for me?”

Allura blinked and turned away from him. “N-no, it’s just you Drules tend to betray one another at the slightest whim.”

“I know you would have freed me, my sweet,” he said as he put his hand on her chin again.

“I wasn’t… intending to….” She couldn’t bring herself to say she hadn’t meant to kiss him, as she wasn’t even sure what to qualify what happened as. “Setting you free was entirely not intended.”

“Then what were you doing?”

She glanced at him for a second out of the corner of her eye before looking away again.

“I just… like I said, I had never been kissed before and I’ve never even had a chance to practice or know what to expect. It was nothing special. It really had nothing to do with it being you.”

Allura glanced up at him again as his hand slipped from her chin. He was scowling, looking at her for a few seconds before abruptly standing, and grabbed his belt and buckle. She sat up and watched him put it all back on. When he picked up his helmet and put it onto his head, she was mildly alarmed. Him striding past her without even glancing her way, over towards the window, made Keith’s words from earlier echo in her head.

“ _Princess, this is probably a plot by Lotor. As long as it’s in play, they won’t attack Arus.”_

She jumped up. “Wait! Please. I didn’t mean that so… harshly. We shouldn’t part like this.”

He stopped. And after she watched him take a few deep breaths, he turned on his heel. He was looking at her, and scowling like he usually was. Allura tried to hold onto the bravery she felt earlier in the face of his usual attitude.

“Well?” he said nearly barking. “What do you want, since it’s clearly not me.”

His words cut into her, and made her worry she had ruined a perfect opportunity of some sort. She was usually quite nice to everyone when not on the battlefield, but it seemed she’d crossed a line. For him to suddenly stop chasing her and say something like that, when they were alone, no less… he had to be hurting. Badly.

“I… I apologize. It would seem I’m trivializing your feelings without consideration. I didn’t intend to do that. Please, stay so we can talk.”

His scowl deepened and she didn’t understand what she had said wrong to make him even more upset.

“Stay so we can talk? Scared I’m going to retaliate to your words with a fleet?”

Allura watched silently and with quivering lips as Lotor took off his helmet. He looked at it for a second, his grip visibly tightening on the sides. She heard him make a low growl as he raised the helm in one hand and slammed it down to the floor. The metal hit hard, clanging in the silence of the early evening. The princess jumped at the action and noise.

There was almost instantly a banging on her door, and a guard on her small intercom asking her if she was all right.

Lotor had his eyes pinched closed, but she stared at him as she answered. “Yes, I’m fine. I just dropped something heavy by accident.” She realized as the words left her that it meant far more than she had intended.

“Do you need assistance, Princess?”

“No, it’s okay, everything is fine. You may go.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Lotor slowly opened his eyes to look at her, his expression slightly relaxing.

“You could have said I was in here,” he murmured.

Allura smiled. “I could have, but then we couldn’t talk like I requested, now could we?”

She watched as he took a deep breath. When he didn’t say anything, she moved closer to him. He looked to the floor, away from her gaze, and the attitude in the air was stifling.

Biting her lip, she closed the gap between them. His shirt was still hanging open, and with shaking fingers she slid her hand under the fabric and across his warm stomach to grasp at his side. She could feel him take a light breath in shock at her touch.

“I admit you look handsome with your shirt falling open like this,” she said low, not daring to look him in the eye as she spoke. “If you’d shown up looking like this instead of yelling at us all those months ago, I might have told Keith to stuff it and let you come inside the castle to chat.”

After she spoke, she slid her other hand under his shirt like with the first. It pulled at the cloth, so she moved her fingers up his chest, and pushed his shirt completely over and off his shoulders. Her own action and now looking at his bare chest was making her feel like she would overheat and faint on the spot.

Lotor whispered her name, and it was the softest and most reverent sounding word she was convinced she had heard in her life. Slowly, she raised her eye to meet his. Allura barely met his gaze before he leaned over and brushed his lips along hers. After a moment, he leaned a little back, his eyebrows upturned like he would cry.

“May I kiss you? A real kiss this time?” he whispered.

She lightly laughed. “You’re actually asking for permission?”

He pouted before answering. “I am.”

“I suppose then a real kiss would be nice, since the first one was so-”

She was cut off as he pressed his lips to hers. It started off sweet, just a soft pressure. It didn’t take long before he was pushing her lips apart with his tongue, and she let him.

Lotor started by running his tongue along hers, slowly. She froze, the sensation completely foreign. She had no idea what to do. He coaxed her to mimic his actions, and she did. It didn’t take long before she was holding her own against him, and even moved to lick at the bottom of his teeth, nearly cutting her tongue on those pointed ones. His hand was in her hair, pulling her close to him, and Allura knew she was gripping his bare shoulders tight.

She pulled back from him, her mind awhirl, and her chest heaving from trying to catch her breath. Everything with him was always so intense!

He let out a light chuckle before leaning his head down onto her shoulder. “Was that a better first kiss, Princess Allura?”

“Y-yes, it was, thank you.” Her cheeks felt like they could burst into flames.

He made an approving humming noise, but didn’t move from her shoulder. His hand was still gripping in her hair, and she was both terrified and relaxed, looking out across her room over his uncovered shoulder. She was unfocused, still able to feel the touch of his lips and tongue on hers.

They stayed like that for a bit, him holding her as he bent over, but not _too_ close to her body. Allura’s mind was running through all their previous interactions. The fact he was being so very respectful was nothing short of alarming. She could not believe he had changed in so fast a time. It seemed more likely a ploy of some sort… but then she thought of the way he had reacted when she touched him on her own. His exuberance at the knowledge that she had kissed his portrait, and then his pure enthusiasm at kissing her when she gave him permission.

The prince of the enemy state, a commander in his own right, and he was very nearly at her mercy for her touch. A thrill coursed through her stomach at the realization that she could absolutely influence him to do what she wanted. How far could she take that? How much could that alter the ongoing conflict?

Allura was thrown out of her thoughts when out of nowhere Lotor lifted his head, grinned at her mischievously, and then picked her up into his arms. She gasped as she gripped at his shoulders, starting to become fearful of where he was going to take her. When he gently set her on her bed and smiled at her softly from where he kneeled next to her, her fear increased.

“We’re talking, correct, my sweet?”

She tried to relax, but he pushed himself into her arms. Allura fell onto her back flat on the coverlet, Lotor nuzzling his nose into her hair.

“What did you want to talk about?” he asked in a near whisper.

The fact he was asking to merely talk was awkwardly endearing in a way.

“Lotor, I can’t speak to you like this.”

She felt him sigh. “Why not?”

“Will you please sit back. You’re… pushing between my legs.”

The prince leaned back, grinning down at her. “Is that a problem?”

She frowned as she sat up on her elbows, and looked away. She heard him sigh again. He leaned back, pushing her knees together and resting his closed hand sideways across them.

Allura looked back at him. “Did Haggar see anything else in her vision?”

He peered over his hand at her. “If she did, I was not informed.”

“Oh. I just… Lotor what do you expect from all this? You know I cannot just accept you.”

His expression turned dark and she was mildly alarmed.

“What would you need to accept me?” he asked, his voice sounding smaller and more insecure than she had ever imagined possible out of the usually arrogant man.

“I… I haven’t ever considered it.”

Lotor sighed for a third time, and rested his forehead on his hand leaned on her knees.

“Allura… I spoke the truth in the note that arrived with the painting. While it was a plan to get close, I was still _gifting_ myself to you in hopes of your acceptance for my courtship. What more do you require?”

She frowned heavily at him, even though he wasn’t looking at her. “You cannot simply _win_ me with gifts and demands, Lotor. I would have thought you _finally_ grasped that.”

His head snapped up. The prince was very clearly frustrated and a bit angry, but she wasn’t finding it alarming this time.

“You begged me to stay, yet you rip my heart out again?”

Those words made doubt creep into her veins, but the earnest nature of them was startling. With a nervous hand, she reached out and touched his cheek. He watched her, his eyebrows slowly shifting upwards.

“Prince Lotor, you have been my enemy from the first, and have always demanded me to give myself to you… to just throw away all my personal freedoms for your desires. Have you not considered at all why I reject your suit? Why I only even considered your looks and attentions towards myself when you were unbeknownst to me stuck in that painting? Why I only touched you of my own choice when I didn’t even know it _was_ you, and you were unable to try and force my hand?”

“You’re touching me now,” he whispered.

She blinked at him. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she was trying to comfort him about her lack of favorable reception. Instead of removing her hand, she moved it back across his skin, nearly cupping his ear and jawline.

“I am, which you should realize means I’m not entirely dismissing you and that you should let me ease into your company instead of trying to always force me to do what you want from the onset.”

His eyes went wide. “You’re... considering me…?”

“Perhaps,” she said as she looked down at the blanket below her. “All I’ve ever known about you has been war, death, anger, and a lust for power. That portrait was the first time I had seen you without blasters going off around me and you yelling at my pilots. Perhaps if you proved your love for me, I would believe your sincerity and give you the proper consideration a prince deserves. Killing my subjects in constant attacks doesn’t move me to want to share my bed with you.” Allura could feel her cheeks growing hot.

Lotor whispering her name in that soft manner again made her look up at him. He was positively glowing in his exuberance. Before she had a chance to react, he launched himself at her, and she once again fell back onto the bed. He was kissing her immediately, but it was tender and without forcing her mouth open. She didn’t even try to tamper down the warm feeling it was giving her.

The prince pulled back after a bit, and brushed some of her hair back behind her ear as he looked down at her. The gentle smile on his face made her second guess all of their previous interactions.

“I will gift to you what I know you most want as my official proposal to you, Princess Allura,” he said before picking up one of her hands to kiss her fingers. The serious nature of how he spoke was making her heart race.

“What I most want?”

There was a low rumble of a laugh in his chest. “Yes, but I won’t tell you ahead of time what that is. I will give you this gift when I next appear before you. May I have one last kiss before I leave? For courage.”

“Courage?”

“Yes. A kiss?”

She bit her lip while looking up at him. His being more amicable than normal was still so very strange.

“You may.”

Agonizingly slowly, Lotor leaned back down. When their lips finally met, his promise of what she ‘most wanted’ was making her heart flutter. She had no idea what he meant by that, but she stopped thinking about it when his tongue brushed against hers and sent a thrill through her stomach at the intimate nature of the action.

A half hour later, Allura sighed alone, arms resting along the windowsill of her bedroom in the chilly night air. She had given Lotor one last peck on the lips as he leaned across to reach her from outside the window when he went to leave. For additional courage.

She half expected he would show up the next day with chests of gold or slaves, but he did not. Days began to go by, and there was no word from him, nor any attacks at all from the Drules. As those days turned into weeks, slowly, news began spreading; Prince Lotor had launched a full scale rebellion, freeing slaves and promising gold and titles to those who were willing to fight for him. Doom and all its controlling planets were in the middle of a civil war.


End file.
